Can separate access modifiers be specified for the get and set accessors of a property?

Question

Can we specify the access modifiers for the get and set accessors of property in C#/.NET?

If so, what would be the best approach to implement this?

Answer 1

Yes, this is possible. It is called Asymmetric Accessor Accessibility, and you can read the MSDN documentation for it on this page. The code would look something like this:

public int Age
{
    get
    {
        return _age;
    }
    protected set
    {
        _age = value;
    }
}

However, there are a couple of important caveats to keep in mind:

• Only one accessor can be modified.
• Any restrictions placed on an individual accessor must be more restrictive than the accessibility level of the property itself, not less.
• You cannot use accessor modifiers on an interface or an explicit implementation of an interface member.

Answer 2

Yes you can...

public class Example
{
    public string Property
    {
        get;
        private set;
    }

    public string Property2
    {
        get;
        protected set;
    }
}

etc.